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Monday, November 7, 2011

The impossible dream.



My mom once told me we all pay for our decisions. Good or bad. And we often have to live with them. Which is why, at thirty-one I am juggling a marriage, a child a full time job and going to school at night on a part time basis to finish a degree that I gave up on back when I should have gotten one.

OK so gave up isn't quite the right word because really I never gave up on it, I just life happened. The original university I went to I hated. It just wasn't me. In all honesty, it never really was. I went there because my sister went there, and I took the advice that you need to go and experience things away from the home. And so I did. I left. I turned down the school I really wanted and opted to do the thing everyone else wanted me to do. Packed up. But within a half a semester I realized I made a mistake. I stuck it out for a year though, and when I came home I promised myself the next time I would go to school, it would be where I wanted to go, and when I was ready.

But as we all know, life gets in the way. I started working. I got a kick ass job working for a radio station, and I loved it. School would just have to wait. I met my then future husband, I was enjoying life as a young twenty something. I lost the coolest job I had ever had because of relocation. I got another job working for a government contracting. It was a hell a lot less cooler but at least they paid for school. And so I started. But with me now living with the fiance now, and paying for things, I had to go part time. I got married.  I finally decided though that it was time to apply to that school I always wanted to go to. And it took three tries but I finally got in, the spring after Andy and I got married.

I couldn't be happier.

Oh how eager I was to start back at the school I should have gone to all those years. I was pumped. I was ready. And then Andy got the job with the Caps, and before we knew it I found myself expecting. Still I told myself I would finish that degree. I promised myself I would. So I took off exactly one semester, and then made my way back to class. Leaving a newborn at home with my husband and my supportive parents who watched him on game nights so I could go.

I was back on track....things were going well.

And for three semesters, it was. I was on the road to graduating. Andy and I started talking about plans, for another child. For the future when I didn't have to attend classes.

And I was so, so close...I was one semester away from being a senior
But last spring I found myself having two emergency surgeries. And having to withdraw from the semesters classes once more. Another semester that I found wasted. Another semester pushed back..I was bummed.

I was still one semester away from being a senior. And with everything pushed back now, it meant I would have to wait on the dreams of adding to the family for a little bit longer. But that was ok, I was going to get it done.

Still determined to finish, I registered again though now that I was heading into the home stretch my classes weren't as readily available and I found myself picking up a class I probably didn't need. But it was something.

By this point, I have been in school for the past seven years. And with each semester I find myself wondering, when is this going to end. Still I knew that I was so close. I couldn't just give up.

And here I am weeks away from the end of the semester and its time to register. But of course, the classes that I need don't fit with the schedule I have. Well. Shit. I mean couldn't there just be an easy button? Adding a class I don't need is wasted money, and time. I can't afford either at the moment.

What to do what to do.

Sometimes there comes a point when you have to wonder is this all worth it? Is this stress this struggle to be everything worth it? I know this was my decision, and I am paying for the mistakes I made over a decade ago. But I also wonder just how much more I can put up with? And if the classes aren't being offered. Then what?

Is it time to admit defeat?

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